Thursday, November 13, 2008

One of the finest teacher/artist/person I know. Here's a sneak peek of 'Storyboarding with Kris Pearn'.

Kris has worked for many years as a Storyboard artist in Television and Feature Animation in both the United States and Canada. Born on a farm in Southwestern Ontario, Kris attended Sheridan College and studied Classical Animation, graduating in 1996. From there he worked in Toronto and Ottawa as a freelance Animator, Layout Artist, Background and Character Designer. Moving to Phoenix Arizona, Kris worked for 20th Century Fox Feature Animation studios on projects such as Anastasia, Bartok the Magnificent, and Titan A.E. While living in the desert, he trained as an Animator but eventually made the switch to preproduction to follow his life long ambition to become a Story Artist. Following the career of a Story Board artist, he moved back to Toronto after the studio in Phonex was closed, and worked on many TV productions such as Rescue Heroes, Jacob Two Two, Franklin, Braceface, 6Teen, Handy Manny, Hoze Houndz, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, King Weirdo, and The Ripping Friends to name a few. In 2003 Kris moved back to the States to work at Sony Pictures Animation studios in Culver City California (where he is currently employed). During his time at Sony he has worked as a Story Artist on Open Season and Surf's Up. He is presently Head Of Story on Sony's upcoming Feature, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs which is slated to hit the screens some time in 2009. As well as working professionally in the Animation industry for over ten years, he has also taught at Sheridan College in the Classical Animation program (and had a lot of fun while being on the other side of the desk). In 2006 Kris was nominated for an Annie Award for his work on Open Season, and was also featured in the 2007 Hollywood Reporter magazine's Crafts issue, highlighting up and coming talent working in the industry behind the scenes (as all storyboard artists are definitely "behind the scenes").Kris lives with his Wife and two loud Children in a wooden box near a beach in Southern California. He has a German Shepherd and is often found rollerblading with the slobbering beast late at night in the general proximity of LAX.He likes Cowboy Movies and good Zombie flicks.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Since there's been such a great response to the last promo code, Schoolism.com is doing a special promotion for 'Storyboarding with Kris Pearn!' There is a 10% off promo code for early bird registered students ending on November the 30th, 2008.

Just enter the code: S76R48

Sign up now at Schoolism as spots are filling up and Kris Pearn will only be taking 15 students for the course on January 26, 2009!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Just wanted to inform you all that Schoolism.com is doing a special promotion for Building a Powerful Comic Book Portfolio with Alvin Lee! There will be a 10% off promo code for early bird registered students ending on November the 30th.

Just enter the code: AL3R7

Sign up now at Schoolism as spots are filling up and Alvin Lee will only be taking 15 students worldwide for the course in Febuary!

For those who do not know, Alvin has been a comic book professional for over ten years now and will be passing on my industry knowledge to students who are willing to learn. It will be a unique learning experience as you will be taking a private online course from Alvin Lee and completing class assignments. Alvin will be grading all of your assignments, critiquing them and also screen capturing the corrections over your own work! It will be an exciting experience to see all of your progress and growth in creating a powerful comic book portfolio. If you are willing to learn, Alvin is willing to teach you!

In this lesson I will begin by running through all the necessary tools you will need for this course. From the proper drafting pencil to use, using a french curve, down to basic photoshop skills to scan and remove non-photo blue from the penciled page. All of the different tools you will need as a professional will be covered during this lesson. After you have been familiarized with the tools I will move forward to analyzing a script with you where you will be thumb-nailing layouts of a page, providing me with several different variations of trial and error until you have the strongest layout and why. Strong storytelling will be the foundation of this assignment.

Lesson 2: The HeroYou will be introduced to the hero and his unique features. I will cover the basic anatomy of a Hero and from there you will be completing a turnaround of the Hero that I provide for you mimicking my own personal style. This will be a test of consistency and accuracy, you will learn the fundamentals of having to draw the same character repeatedly in different angles. I will teach you how to do render a proper turnaround with the usage of guidelines which will be repeated on the hero's face.

Lesson 3: The HeroineI will introduce you to drawing the heroine and the delicacy of a woman's figure. More importantly which lines to keep, which to take away. You will be repeating the same process and completing a turnaround of a full figure drawing I provide for you. Again you will be replicating my style but doing so in different angles to test your ability to create consistently out of your own comfort zone. I will also be covering the alluring features of a woman's face.

Lesson 4: Exaggerated Proportions and ForeshorteningAfter you have been accustomed to penciling the fundamentals of a comic book character we will then move on to explore the excitement of exaggeration. During this lesson I will show you interesting ways to encourage your creativity with human anatomy, especially for comicbooks. I will be providing you with a drawing of a disproportionate figure and you will be analyzing that in the form of a turnaround. After that is completed we will move on to dynamic foreshortening. I will be showing you different techniques to really make something look like it is coming towards the viewer. We will be completing a study on both arms and legs and how to foreshorten them properly.

Lesson 5: Dynamic HandsThe complete penciler must know how to draw not only realistic hands but also powerful ones. In this lesson I will be showing you tricks I have learned during my career to help you understand hands, how they work and how to exaggerate them to create a desired emotional effect. During this lesson you will also be doing a study on the expressions of your own hands and using them as your own lifedrawing tool. Those principles will be applied to a set of exaggerated comic book hands, to test your understanding and consistency.

Lesson 6: Detailing and TexturesThis lesson will cover everything from the basics of light and shadow to the intricacies of detailing a page using different comicbook styles. The different techniques covered will include using hard shadows to define a character, crosshatching to create shades of dark to light, minimalistic lineart and texturing for different surface materials. Those individual comic styles will be put to the test on basic shapes to demonstrate each's properties which will then be applied to the human figure.

Lesson 7: Lightboxing and Perspective GuidelinesDuring this class you will learn the techniques of using a lightbox when enlarging a thumbnail. I will show you how to complete an accurate perspective grid so that you characters coincide with the backgrounds properly to avoid mishaps. I will be covering the importance of using the copy, trim and bleed lines on a comicboard and lastly I will have you enlarge your own layout previously provided to me in Lesson 1 and prepare the page for the penciling phase.

Lesson 8: BackgroundsIn this lesson you will be introduced to the establishing panel. The one panel that will showcase your versatility in drawing environments that surround your characters. I will be showing you different techniques in using perspective grids and also the application of textures for different surfaces. I will be providing you with a floorplan of an environment in which I will be helping you create the elevation. I will also be showing you tricks of the trade in making backgrounds easier for you, especially when you are limited in time. Also I will be covering a brief segment on the usage of speedlines.

Lesson 9: PencilingEverything we have covered during the previous 8 lessons will be culminated into this final lesson! Just to give you an idea, you will be applying the light and shadow techniques in lesson 6 on the layout you provided in Lesson 1 on the page you enlarged in lesson 7. The Hero and the Heroine from lessons 2 and 3 will be drawn on the final page using one of the unique comic penciling styles and the end result will be a completed penciled page, packed with everything a powerful comicbook portfolio should include!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Thursday, September 25, 2008

If it looks a bit weird that's cos I sketched it on a huge piece of cardboard that I dug out of the bin at my work and then took a photo. If you haven't rented Eagle vs. Shark then you will never know the true genius of this man.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I felt like doing some quick sketching and painting this morning to get my engines running . . . I sometimes feel for magazine work that I tend to hold back on exaggeration and how I really see someone for fear of the art director not going for it . . . that's about to change.

* NEWS FLASH * My wife Kat and I have been married for 10 years and this Saturday we leave for Ireland for two and a half weeks to celebrate! This will most likely be my last post until I return!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Attempting some self-caricatures... one is more sketchy and portraity and one is more simplistic and cartoony. I personally like the cartonny one, it actually looks more like me (the sketchy one makes me look like Charles Manson, although a few people have said that to me before).

Ok so the first is a value sketch and it's pretty light, never done colour before and wanted to get cracking on it as soon as so I skimped on the value. I like the value one better. I'm much more comfortable with graphite and I had to change my technique a few times in order to get this colour sketch to this point even. I am happy with how some things turned out but overall it died on the table. I was building it up and building it up and then I went for a cup of tea and it was dead. I considered reviving it or restarting but considering that this was the 4th incarnation of this colour rendering I decided that I should let it breathe its last breath... For the moment at least. I do like how the ears turned out and how I did manage to build up the skin colour and I really like the caricature as a whole but I lost the likeness and that sucks. Oh well. Keep moving. He who stops being better stops being good.

Monday, September 8, 2008

This is my first blog ever so.....Progress is going VERY slow on this one. Having some difficulty getting correct values but just need to put more time into it. Has gone through drastic surgery from the sketch to the painting and will probably go through more when I add color.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Friday, August 22, 2008

Just wanted to post something I've been working on. I've been taking the schoolism courses since they began. I'm kind of addicted to them. I've learned so much and my art has improved by more than I could ever imagine. Right now I'm taking the storyboarding class and it's really intense. Never knew there was so much work involved in creating a storyboard, but I'm really enjoying the class.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

link-> caricadoodle blogLet me state straight off that this blog is not meant to take the place of the official schoolism blog. This blog is for all past and future schoolism alumni who would like to post stuff for critique that is not up to a presentable standard for displaying on the official schoolism blog. If this blog is successful, hopefully a link to it will be put on the official schoolism blog.

Monday, July 14, 2008

I eventually would like to put a rug under him. I wanted him in a Thai Chi pose and flying on his rug. I don't really like his mint green robe. It was working for his jacket in the headshot but it's too much here. Hands are definitely a weakness and something I'll be working on a lot in the near future. I really enjoyed the class and will definitely keep posting.

(sigh of relief) Well here it is... I will probably make some more tiny changes later on down the road to the body and hair, but for now my eyes and hands are tired and I need to turn this puppy in. It was a pleasure being in the same class with you guys. Check out my art blog for future work... http://tony-montano-art.blogspot.com. Thanks Jason for the class!

Here's a sneak peak of my final illustration. I'm currently working on the body and coloring. I still need to make some touch ups in the face, but we'll see how far I get... I have a little over 8 hours left until this is due... gotta get back to work! :) I'll post the finalized version later...

Saturday, July 5, 2008

I just pasted the head on the body. I actually didnt have to exaggerate the body, I found full body pictures of him in what I guess is his current overweight state. So what do you think? Am I on the right track? Is he recognizable as Russell Crowe or did I push the exageration too far? I still have a long ways to go to paint values, I hope I can get a lot more done by tommorow.

Man, I had fun with this one! This turned out better than I hoped it would. Don't get me wrong, I know there's always room for improvement and I'll likely be dissatisfied with this in a month, but for now...I'm pleased.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

This one is based on his character in the movie, Dogma. Still working out the values (and the wings), then I'll add some colour. Since values have always been my challenge, I'm enjoying doing caricatures grayscale first and then using Jason's colour technique. I still end up painting in colour over all of it, but this helps me get a good base.